Assistant youth football coach Dion Robinson was released from jail Tuesday after posting $1,000 bond, a day after he was arrested on an assault charge for sucker-punching a referee.
Robinson did not comment as he got into his lawyer's car.
The referee who was punched by Robinson after a game in West Park over the weekend, in an incident caught on video, said he couldn't believe he was attacked by the man.
"I was shocked! I was like holy sh--," referee Andrew Keigans told NBC 6 Monday night.
The incident happened Saturday night while Keigans was refereeing the game between the Miramar Patriots and West Park Saints at McTyre Park.
When coaches for the Saints argued a call and came on the field, the game was called and all hell broke loose.
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"That's when my buddy said 'Drew just keep walking, don't say nothing, just keep walking, don't say nothing' and that's when he comes around and just, I actually turned right into it, if you see the video, I turn right into it and he got me in my ear," Keigans said.
Robinson was the man who punched Keigans, according to police.
It's not Robinson's first time in trouble with the law. The 43-year-old's criminal record includes arrests for battery on a law enforcement officer, aggravated assault with a firearm, armed robbery and cocaine possession and distribution.
"It did surprise me that he slipped through the cracks. Because at the end of the day, what is he teaching the kids?" Keigans said.
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Some relatives of the players saw it differently.
"Nobody's perfect, so, what that got to do with football?" Anthony Ramos said. "If he can coach good and he don't mess with the kids like that, everything is fine, no one's perfect."
West Park Mayor Eric Jones said the background check that the city received was inaccurate.
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He showed NBC 6 the file the city had for Robinson. It showed that Robinson has coached in several local leagues, signed the coaches' code of conduct, supplied an affidavit of good moral character, and said that his only blemish in Miami-Dade criminal court records was for a minor offense called unsanitary nuisances.
Keigans said he didn't deserve to be punched.
"None of this has ever happened, none of this, not even when Liberty City plays Overtown and it gets intense out there," Keigans said. "And I hear stuff from the sidelines, but never to the point where they are going to put their hands on you."
Keigans' attorneys said they're looking into the incident and could pursue a civil lawsuit.
Jones said that now the city will do more extensive checks on people who deal with children.
"Sometimes it will take incidents and experience to give you wisdowm to actually make you now say 'OK, we need to do more than what we've been doing cause we don't know who's been slipping through the cracks," he said.
